The Burns Library lawn is to be the site of a memorial honoring alumni killed in the line of military duty. Now in its final stages of design, the stone monument will be the first permanent memorial on campus commemorating fallen veterans of all wars, and will complement the existing September 11 victims memorial—a 50-foot-wide labyrinth—on the hedge-lined greensward between Linden Lane and College Road. A ceremony at the site is scheduled for November 11, 2007, in conjunction with the University’s seventh annual Veterans Day remembrance Mass and ceremony.

Illustration: Eamonn Bonner

Cochaired by Vietnam veterans Paul Lufkin ’64 and Paul Delaney ’66, the memorial project offers “an opportunity to honor our classmates and create a more complete record of fallen alumni soldiers,” says Delaney, who along with Lufkin, is spearheading a $500,000 fundraising effort. The names of servicemen and servicewomen will be etched into the stone memorial, but Boston College, says Delaney, is still seeking the names of veterans killed in action, particularly during the Korean War, and welcomes reports from veterans’ families, friends, and classmates. To date, the University’s records include 203 names: 15 from World War I; 158 from World War II; five from the Korean War; 24 from Vietnam; and one from Afghanistan.

A bronze plaque commemorating veterans of the Second World War currently hangs in Gasson’s Irish Hall, and a flagpole dedicated to all alumni veterans stands on the campus green, better known as the Dust Bowl. The new memorial, says World War II veteran William McInnes, SJ, ’44, who serves as chaplain of the Alumni Association, will create a more public space “to respect the dead and to encourage the virtue of honor among the living.”

To inform Boston College of a veteran killed in action, click here.

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